Choosing a Deep Hair Conditioner

With all the havoc hair endures during the day, sometimes standard shampooing and conditioning just isn't enough to restore health to those tresses. This is why store aisles are filled with assorted brands of deep hair conditioners, all created specifically to provide extra care and repair your hair.

If you have no idea of what you want, other than a quality hair conditioner that provides some serious restorative power, think about what kind of shape your hair is in. If it's damaged, it'll need a protein-based treatment. If it's dry, it'll need a moisture-based treatment. If it's both damaged and dry, it'll need both protein and moisture.

Most salons are stuffed with conditioners that provide protein, moisture, healing and X-ray vision all in one little container. Unfortunately, these products can run from $30 to $3,000 for a single use package, depending on what special powers your hair needs.

If you're looking for products that fit into your budget, two powerful choices for both protein and moisture are placenta or cholesterol products. Placenta is just what it sounds like: animal placenta processed into a hair treatment. Cholesterol is also just like it sounds: cholesterol from animal fat processed into a hair treatment.

Placenta and cholesterol products are wonderful for dry hair in need of serious attention. These deep conditioners aren't the type you want to use once a week, they're too heavy. Unless your hair is severely damaged, using these items once a month should work.

The best use for a placenta or cholesterol deep hair conditioner is to help heal hair fried from coloring, perming, or styling. Anyone with oily hair will find both products make the hair greasy and a magnet for dirt.

If you rather not use such unsavory animal parts, there are many plant- or synthetic-based products available that will perform almost as well. They also tend to be friendlier to oily hair. However, the prices for these products can begin to get very expensive, especially if they're advertised as natural hair care products.

Hot oil treatments provide both protein and moisture to help restore dull hair. These are fairly priced, work reasonably well and are useful for regular, once a week, deep conditioning. They help boost oily hair without adding extra weight and still leave dry hair feeling silky. However, if you're trying to restore severely damaged hair, the oils just don't have the punch you need.

With all of the heat, humidity and smog in today's air, an African American woman needs to do a wide array of tasks to take care of her hair. Aside from washing, conditioning and oiling the scalp each and every week - for some this must be done daily - it is of the utmost importance that African American women choose the best products for their hair.